Mass Effect: Remembrance
by Perkasaurus
Summary: Waking up in a Cerberus facility with no memory and only young biotic Gillian Grayson for a companion, Warren has three questions; who is he, why is he so good at killing people and why does Cerberus want him dead? The only way to find out is to hunt them down in a galaxy still recovering from the Reapers, but Warren's determination might well stop another war from breaking out.
1. Chapter 1

"_Perhaps I can convince you to come quietly now?"_

_He stood over me, a gun in his hand. I was clutching the hole in my leg, well aware that if I couldn't find some way to stop the bleeding soon, I would either lose the leg or lose my life. Too much blood, all because I was too damn careless._

"_You never stopped trying before. Why would you this time?" I laughed. He had been relentless. The only reason he had come this close now was because I had let myself be trapped, like an animal. I knew it had to end, one way or the other. But he was holding a gun, and the most I had was a knife, just out of reach of my hand._

"_I am only thinking of your well-being," he said, lowering the gun slightly. It was no longer aimed at my head, but it was still aimed at me, and from experience, I was sure that a shot through the kneecap would hurt a _lot_ more than a shot through the head. _

"_Really? Why don't I believe you," I said. After all, he _had_ just shot me._

"_I don't have to bring you in alive, you know. There are other ways."_

"_Believe me, I know. Do you think I didn't read the reports on Lazarus?" I had familiarised myself with as much information as I could before I had fled. These people might have made me who I was- in more ways than one- but in the end, I never trusted them._

"_Well then, I suppose that is our only option."_

"_I guess so." He raised his gun, and I went for the knife._

-{-}-

He woke up with a start. Sweating, panting, heart racing, the works. He looked around, clutching at his chest. The dream had been so vivid, it had felt real, the gunshot tearing right through him... but now he tried to recall what he had seen, it vanished in his mind, the images becoming as dark and cloudy as smoke, fleeing away from sight whenever he tried to concentrate on them. He could remember nothing of the dream, nothing, except for the immediate pain he had felt when the gun had gone off.

Come to think of it, he couldn't remember much. The worrying thing was that, no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not remember his name. He would have assumed that would be the first thing he could remember, but apart from the shadowed remnants of the dream- no, call it a nightmare- that he had just went through, he struggled to recall anything. As far as his memory was concerned, the first time he had ever opened his eyes had been the painful occasion a few seconds ago.

He looked around, sure that there would be some sign in the room he was in, but no luck. The 'room' was nothing more than a dull grey box, a metal cage, complete with bars on the door. He would have attempted to slip his arm through and try to signal for somebody, but he saw the emitters hidden in the metal, pulsing blue; when he placed his fingers between two bars, a quick flash of blue light surged up and a painful jolt went up his arm. Apart from the shielded doorway and the bed, which was a severe, simple thing dangling from the wall like a tray, he could see nothing of note. No wardrobe, no mirror, no sink or toilet, no chair, no bookcase, _nothing_ that would indicate what purpose this room served, other than to contain him.

He did his best to crane his neck and look down the corridor outside. It was mostly very similar to the room he was in- very simple, with flat metal walls, ceiling and floor, and strips of light running along the ceiling- and contained absolutely no one. It was empty. There was an open door at the far end, but apart from that, the only thing that was at all worth noticing was a symbol painted on the wall, made of parallel yellow shapes. He knew that somehow, he knew what organisation it belonged it.

It began with a C, but that was about all he recalled.

He was not content to simply sit around though, and a voice in the back of his mind was screaming at him to run as fast as he could. He examined the door, and noticed that the only way to open it was via a holographic panel, which was currently showing that the door was locked. He tried to tap a few of the keys on the interface, but every time his fingers touched anything, the console flashed a harsh red and he was shocked once more.

With no way of getting out, he sat down on the bed again. This time, he focused on remembering anything he possibly could. He was struggling, and he still could not remember his name, and after a while, he gave up hope. He faintly remembered someone telling him about amnesia, but for the life of him, he could not say how the conversation had gone, or who had given it; frankly, he was unsure how he knew the word, or the meaning of, amnesia.

He felt his ears prick up ever so slightly, and, in the distance, he heard a faint rumble and a sharp, sudden _bang_. _Explosion_, he realised, unsure how he knew that. The lights outside and in his room flickered, and there was his ray of hope. He stepped closer to the door and watched the emitters on the bars briefly. Another of the rumbling sounds, another explosion, and another flicker of the lights, and the emitters cut out for a brief instant. That was all he needed. Seizing on the chance, he delivered a kick to the door that sent a jarring pain up his leg, but he succeeded in levering the door from its frame a slight margin, and when the lights came back on, the console now listed the door as 'open'.

He pushed the door softly and, very carefully, stepped out of the room. He looked down both ends of the corridor, but was confronted with absolutely nothing at all. The only door, apart from the one he had just opened, was located at the far end of the corridor, and there was nothing at all that showed him who he might be. Although he was apprehensive, and unsure about what to do or what he would find, he decided the only course of action was to head to that door and see what was on the other side.

This one was unlocked, and slid open as he approached; the movement startled him, and he took a quick step back. There was nothing on the other side though- no people, either- and so he walked through, cautiously checking both sides and every corner of the room he was in. A huge array of computer consoles and monitors covered one wall, and half of the room was separated by security glass and was filled with lockers and racks, which no doubt once held weaponry. Indeed, a sign above the door read 'Armoury'.

Ignoring that for a moment, he went to the consoles, to see if he could see anything. They were clearly security devices; cameras were shown, and he could see many different rooms and areas. Two of them showed explosions and two groups of people fighting, but he couldn't discern any individuals or any organisations, and decided to ignore them for now. Instead, he looked for any footage of his own room, hoping to find any information whoever had occupied this room might have had on him. It took a moment, but he found a console in question, and while the other camera feeds all bore names such as "Entrance Hall" and "Barracks", this one only bore one word; "Warren."

Having never heard the word used to describe a room in a facility, he decided that must have been his name. Warren.

Warren turned to the armoury and pushed the door open, checking to make sure no one was hidden inside. Only one of the racks actually had anything within, and that was somewhat disappointing; a pistol. Warren was wary of picking it up, sure that someone found in a facility having broken out of a cell with a gun in hand would not be met with a friendly reception, but he took it regardless. Oddly, it felt much better to have a weapon in hand, and the pistol felt just right in his palm. It was almost frightening, how much better he felt to have it.

_Maybe I deserved to be locked up in there_, he thought, but he was sure he was just over-thinking things. After all, who wouldn't feel better in a strange place with explosions sounding off in the distance to have found a means of defending themselves?

Warren turned back to the security consoles, and decided to search around for a way out. He tapped a few keys on the console, and managed to find a map of the facility in a few moments. He was surprised to find so little encryption or security on the console itself, but he supposed that a map of the facility would hardly be classified information. He looked for any indication of an exit, and found a room marked as Hangar Bay. Deciding that would be the best place to head towards, Warren took a moment to memorise which turns he should take, which doors he should walk through and what he should avoid before he turned towards the door at the opposite side of the room.

He opened it with a brief touch of the console on the surface, and walked through, holding the pistol at the ready. He was slightly disappointed that he had not seen any armour in the armoury, as he was just wearing a shirt and a pair of black combat pants, and he knew _those_ wouldn't have shields equipped. Still, he doubted armour would do him any good. After all, it would make noise, and he didn't think it would do any good to restrict his movement with ill-fitting armour. He would just have to make do.

He honestly had no idea where that sort of thought was coming from. _How the bloody hell do I know anything about armour?_ He shook his head and pressed on down the corridor, heading down towards where a series of arrows pointed towards an area marked "Section 3".

He thought he could hear voices ahead, and pressed himself to the door in a crouched position, the pistol held in oddly steady fingers. He shuffled along the wall until he reached the end of his wall, and listened. There were, indeed, voices, oddly muffled and warped by something, likely a helmet.

"How the hell did they find us? I thought we were put here to prevent this kind of thing."

"No doubt someone betrayed us. After all, with the boss dead, somebody was bound to Cerberus was over. Probably told the Alliance to bring a full battalion over here; way too many for us to handle in a straight-up fight."

"And yet here we are, stuck watching a pair of kids to make sure they don't wake up."

"Do you know who these 'kids' are? Just pray they don't wake up."

"Hell, I was there when they brought Warren in. He didn't look ready to wake up any time soon."

"They can do miraculous things these days."

Warren gasped. They knew him, and they were the ones trying to keep him contained. They would most likely not be pleased to see him, but he had nowhere to go. He could hear footsteps coming towards him but when he looked back he realised the corridor was too long; they would see him before he could disappear from view and he would be caught in very tight quarters without any cover. No doubt they would have guns and armour. He could feel a nagging voice in his mind yelling at him to do something, but he couldn't say what. Frankly, he was too afraid to move; these men were either soldiers or guards and either way would have more training than Warren and would not be pleased to see him up.

The soldiers had reached the corner, and Warren felt his body move before he could tell it to.

His body snaked around the wall and grabbed the first man by the arm. Both men were wearing white body armour, black helmets and carrying sub-machine guns, but that apparently did not stop Warren. He felt like he was outside of his body, looking on as his hand slammed the man's gun away and punched up, grabbing the man's chin and lifting the helmet up to expose the neck, just as Warren's hand holding the pistol lifted up the weapon, pressed it in between the chest-piece and the helmet and fired. The blood splattered all over the man behind him, turning his armour from white to red, but he barely had time to react before Warren pointed the gun around the body he was still holding up, using the corpse as a shield, and fired. The shot took the man through the eye, bursting through the other side. The man had not raised his shields.

Warren dropped the body, and his pistol, looking at his hands which were both covered in droplets of blood. _What the hell was that? Who the hell am I?_ he found himself thinking. He hadn't done any of that. At least, he hadn't consciously done any of that. All he had wanted to do was hide. He didn't even _know_ how to fire a gun... and yet he did. He had killed these two men without even thinking about it, and now he was sure that he had belonged in that cell.

"He's awake!"

Warren looked up to see two more men in white armour looking at him further down the corridor. They raised their weapons and, while his brain was still processing what he had just done, he had forgotten to dive aside or pick up his pistol again. They had a clear shot, and he realised that they would kill him.

Suddenly, the men were blasted off their feet by a wave of dark blue light and slammed into the wall next to them. One slumped down against the floor, not moving, while the other struggled back onto his knees. Warren took that chance and slid his pistol off the ground, walking towards him and firing off three shots. All of them slammed into the white armour, one in the chest, taking down the man's shields, and the other two blasting the man's brains through his helmet. As his body fell, Warren stepped towards the other man and shot him through the back of the head as he lay on the ground. There was no sense in taking chances.

He was dangerous. He was a killer. He knew that he had deserved to be locked up in that prison cell, but he did not know who these people were or why they had held him. All he knew was that he did not want to be there, and he had already killed four men. There was no point in stopping now. Somehow, he felt as though someone in the back of his mind was applauding as he reached that conclusion.

He heard a noise behind him and turned around, pistol raised.

A Human girl stood before him, dressed in the same way as he was and looking almost as angry and confused. Her hands were raised up in front of her and a wavy blue light, the same that had slammed the two soldiers against the wall, and Warren's mind told him that they were Biotics. How he knew he had no idea, and what biotics were, he also had no idea, but this girl had sent two heavily armoured men flying into a wall and she had done it from about ten feet away, so he had no desire to get on her bad side.

"Who are you?" he asked. She didn't answer. She simply stared right back at him, the light around her hands getting stronger, and he decided that he had best behave. He lowered the pistol. "You obviously don't like these men," he said, pointing to the corpses he had left behind. "Same as me. Now, maybe we can help each other, but I would like to know who you are."

"You tell me first." Her voice was quiet, but her glare spoke volumes.

"Warren. I would tell you more, but I don't know." Warren looked at the bodies. "These men knew who I was, and they didn't seem too happy that I was walking around. Now, who are you?" He had the pistol pointed at the floor now, and as the girl continued to glare at him, he smiled at her, in what he hoped would be a reassuring fashion. She continued to glare, but eventually, her eyes took in the soldiers on the floor, the soldiers lying further down the corridor, the blood on Warren's clothes and the gun in his hand. He could see that in her mind she was calculating things. Slowly, the light around her hands dissipated, and she stood up straight. She didn't come any closer, but she looked less angry.

"Gillian. Gillian Grayson."

"Pleased to meet you. Now, how about we get out of this place?"


	2. Chapter 2

"And you're sure that this is the way out?"

Gillian waved Warren towards a console and, with a few quick button presses, a door on the far side of the room had opened up. He quickly raised his looted pistol and crept towards the open door and the corridor on the other side. He saw nothing and signalled to Grayson, and the girl hurried forwards. They had passed through two more empty security stations, and Warren had picked up several spare thermal clips for his pistol, but the girl had refused any weapons.

Considering what her biotics had done to the guards, he wasn't surprised.

"Stick behind me, just like before. If you remember the layout correctly, we should be able to reach a secondary shuttle hangar further along this corridor." Warren walked out into the corridor, keeping his eye out for movement. Again, the corridor was long, with nothing to use for cover if anyone stumbled upon them. It was both a smart and a stupid idea. Anyone attacking this facility would find little to protect them from the defender's weaponry, but at the same time, the defenders couldn't set up defensive positions along the corridors.

Not that they'd have to worry so much. If Gillian had the biotic power that Warren suspected she did, she could easily clear the way with a biotic push or even a singularity. There was that nagging feeling again, Warren realised. How the hell do I even know what biotics are? he thought. He didn't know where all of this information was coming from.

They walked in silence through the corridor, passing by several junctions and checking and clearing them with speed and care. Warren had tried small-talk with Gillian, trying to figure out who she was and why she was in this facility, but he had gotten nothing from her. She seemed very quiet, but also very calm for a girl who was fighting her way out of a detainment facility.

Either that, or she simply had yet to register what was going on. He couldn't tell. It did seem like she wasn't all that aware of her situation.

"Wait," he whispered, holding out an arm to stop her and signalling for them both to drop to their knees. The corridor extended out over a larger room below, and the walls turned from metal to glass. He hadn't realized, through the schematics that Gillian had brought up, that it would have been so.

He crept along until the wall ended and poked his head very carefully around the edge. Below, there was a much larger, open room that struck him to be some kind of warehouse or storage facility. Mechs, weapons, supplies, all were arranged throughout, but that was a minor detail at the moment; the battle raging throughout the room caught Warren's attention more.

The men in the white armour, who Warren had already come across, were fighting a pitched battle against people flooding in from a large hole torn into one wall. The white-armoured force were clearly the defenders in this battle, having set up stationary defences, but the people who were flooding in were gaining the upper-hand. Rockets flew across the warehouse and sent the defenders flying, and more and more soldiers came in through the hole.

Warren tried to get a closer look at their armour. Mostly blue, with a symbol that he vaguely recognised.

"Alliance."

Warren turned to the girl. She had craned around him to see below, and was pointing to the attacking soldiers.

"I take it they don't like whoever this Cerberus group is," Warren chuckled. "Well, we know where those explosions came from, and these Alliance people are probably responsible for cutting the power to our cells. Let's go, while everyone is distracted."

Warren hurried forward, breaking into a run across the glass corridor, Gillian following behind. He could only hope that, as horrendously exposed as they were, no one was going to notice them-

And, of course, they did.

"The prisoners are escaping!" echoed a soldier below. Warren turned to look and saw a number of the white-armoured troops below looking and pointing up. "Take that corridor out!" Warren saw a group of soldiers turn their weapons on the corridor and swore.

He grabbed Gillian's hand as the girl stopped to see what he was looking at and ran, dragging her with him, as bullets and rounds began to pierce the glass, shattering it and sending shards and shrapnel flying through the corridor. Keeping ahead of the weapons fire, Warren could see where the corridor turned to metal once again, and pushed Gillian ahead of him, trying to get her closer to safety.

Something exploded behind him and the glass beneath his feet cracked. He leapt forward as the sheets beneath him broke apart and cluttered down towards the ground, hitting the hard metal of the corridor ahead with his shoulder as he rolled into the landing. Gillian had been knocked down by the explosion and he helped her up as he passed by.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as he led her along the corridor. She nodded grimly, but still, rather infuriatingly, seemed to have no emotional response whatsoever.

The corridor broke into a junction, and Warren struggled to bring up the schematics in his mind's eye. He turned this way and that, trying to remember, until he turned to Gillian… who was gone. She had already begun to hurry down the left fork, and so he hurried after her. She had been the one to tell him where to go and had confirmed it with a set of hacked building schematics; he could only assume she knew what she was doing.

"Gillian, wait," he said, grabbing her shoulder. She shrugged him off but stopped. "If those soldiers below saw us, they probably warned other guards in the facility. Let me go ahead. If we run into anyone unexpected I'm better equipped to deal with them."

She nodded and fell behind. He had expected complaints or protests, but there were none. Warren had to admit it was mildly annoying; he was feeling anxious, his heart was thudding through his ribcage and he was more and more worried as the situation worsened, but this girl didn't even seem to care. He would get her onto a shuttle, and then he would leave her be. She obviously didn't like having company.

A signpost nearby advertised the directions to the shuttle bay, and Warren led Gillian along until they reached another sealed door. Gillian took one side and he the other, and once they were ready he waved his hand over the entrance console and waited for the doors to slide open with a _hiss_ before he swung himself around the frame and into the room beyond.

A larger room, split into two sections by a small rise and a pair of staircases. The half they were in held tables, computer consoles and electronic equipment, whereas the other held stasis chambers, examination tables and sample storage units.

A laboratory of some sort, then.

"We should- hey, wait!" Warren began, heading towards the far door before he noticed Gillian heading for a console nearby. "We need to leave now, Gillian. We don't have time to be looking for anything." She waved him away and tapped away at the keys, staring at the screen. To be frank, the prospect of leaving her was tempting, but he needed her to get out of the facility. Her biotics were far too useful.

"What are you looking for?" he asked, craning to see.

"This."

The screen crackled into life. It was a communication log, between whoever had used the console, and a recipient whose image had been blurred. There was no date or time on the recording, and no name either; it was obvious that this log had not been intended to be used for official purposes.

"I take it that the sample has arrived on schedule?"

"Sample? If that's what you could call him. We've taken whatever we could from his cells and sent them to the labs for recreation and extraction. The boy will be taken into the Lazarus labs as soon as they have the equipment ready."

"Good. Take all the precautions you need to; your facility cannot be detected by any outside parties or the entire cell could be compromised."

"With respect, sir, why bother with Lazarus? Cloning should do, surely?"

"Cerberus never abandons a potential resource, Doctor. Especially one as potent as the boy. Once your work has been completed send two samples to our people in the Terminus Systems, and two to those in Citadel Space. They will need them."

"And what of the girl, sir? She has nearly escaped four times now. Every time we find a new way to lock down the shuttle bay, she breaks through it."

"Have you been able to perfect our own biotic improvement process using her yet?"

"No. The work is too complicated to replicate quickly."

"Then continue to contain her, and use more extreme measures if necessary. Do not kill her, yet. Once you have completed your work, have her put into the Lazarus labs, and ensure that she is brought back with a control chip. She could be useful, on our side."

"Yes sir."

Assuming that 'the girl' was Gillian, this explained why she knew the layout of the facility; escaping from her cell four times was impressive, that was no mistake. Still, Warren was quite worried; first of all, was he this 'sample' that the log talked of, and what were these Lazarus labs that the recording spoke of?

"What were you looking for in that recording?"

"A system. Now I know where their bases are."

"Good," Warren said, turning towards the door. "So you can avoid them."

"No."

Alright, so, that was rather creepy. Still, Warren led Gillian towards the door, checking his pistol. Putting all thoughts of who he was and what this Lazarus thing meant, he opened up the door and hurried through it into another larger room.

"That's the door to the shuttle bay, if I'm not mistaken," Warren said, pointing. "Is that right?"

"Yes. There should be some escape shuttles there."

"Alright then, we'll just have to-"

"Our orders are to wait here until the two escapees appear and apprehend them." Warren cursed and dropped to the ground, dragging Grayson down with him. They crawled forward until they could see the group of armoured soldiers ahead. "Remember, they are incredibly dangerous. Don't let the girl use her biotics and for god's sake, do _not_ take your eyes off of the boy."

"How can children be dangerous, sir?"

"They're hardly children, just young, and you haven't seen what they're capable of, soldier. Just keep your eye out for them."

"How many do you count?" Warren whispered.

"Nine," Gillian answered.

"Can you trap a few with your biotics?"

"Maybe four or five."

"Alright. Hit them with something, and I'll skirt around to the side while they don't expect it. The moment you've hit them with a biotic attack, drop down into cover behind the wall and don't come out again until I say its clear." Warren didn't give her chance to argue. He raised and cocked his pistol and rolled towards a crate across the floor, and Gillian attacked.

Summoning up dark energy around her, she gave a yell and flung it out into the crowd of Cerberus troopers. A few of them felt the pressure build up as an orb of energy started to form in their centre. Suddenly, the singularity took its shape; a tiny black hole, churning the air and gravity around it. Two soldiers tried to grab onto poles and walls but were pulled into the vortex, and five soldiers in total were carried off their feet and sent sailing through the air.

Warren sprung up from his position behind the soldiers. As the few who hadn't been caught in the singularity turned to fire at Grayson, he darted forward, closing the gap and firing as he did so. His first few shots tore through the kinetic barriers on the closest soldier's armour and punctured through some vital points, and before the next soldier could turn Warren had picked up a fallen submachine gun and unloaded a full clip into him.

Swinging himself over a table, he slammed his foot into the chest of a Cerberus soldier as the man shifted his aim, ejecting the pistol's spent thermal clip as he flew through the air. The Cerberus trooper had an electric blade stored in a harness at his back, and Warren ripped it free before the winded man could fight back and slid it through the armour at the man's neck.

The last man standing fired at Warren with his submachine gun, but found his skewered comrade in the way of the bullets; Warren had flung the body across at the last soldier, and he slotted a fresh thermal clip into the pistol and blasted a round through the last man's visor before more shots could come his way.

The singularity still in play, Warren turned to the men floating helplessly through the air and picked them off quickly and easily; all he had to do was take his time and put a round through each man's had as he sailed by. Loading a new thermal clip after the last man grew still, he signalled to Gillian. The singularity died, her concentration shifted from the continued channelling of dark energy, and she hurried over to his side as he headed for the shuttle bay door.

He wasn't sure, but there might have been fear in her expression as she caught up with him.

"Good work; just as we planned," he said reassuringly. They opened the door to the shuttles and found themselves confronted with a full load of transport vessels. Oddly, none of them bore the marks and emblems of Cerberus that they had found around the facility, but Warren wasn't too concerned about that. It made life easier. "Pick one. Can you fly a shuttle?"

"Yes. I learned from Quarians."

"Alright. Get in." Warren covered the door with his pistol while she worked on opening up one of the shuttles, waiting to see if any more soldiers followed. He heard her feverishly working away behind him, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

The door to the shuttle swung open and Gillian hurried inside, running to the pilot's chair. Warren kept the door open, his pistol still trained on the shuttle bay doors, but now he used the shuttle's armoured hull as cover. "Can you access the controls?" he asked, calling across the shuttle.

"Yes, but it will take time."

"Don't take too long."

"I need to open the hangar bay doors to get out."

"Can you?"

"Eventually."

"Well then-"

"There they are! Shuttle three!"

More Cerberus soldiers, and these ones weren't going to fall for a surprise attack. Warren cursed and ducked behind the hull as the shots began to rain down on them. Some struck the hull, others flew through the open door, and some slammed into the front of the shuttle, threatening to break through the kinetic barriers.

"Get those doors open now!" Warren shouted, turning and firing. The pistol was bloody inaccurate, but he compensated, aiming at chest-height into a group of soldiers and unloading a clip. Three of them stumbled or went down as bullets slammed into barriers and armour or into flesh, but more poured in, taking cover behind shuttles, crates, ammunition boxes and other handy pieces of cover that had been left lying about. Warren had two thermal clips left, and he slotted a fresh one in knowing he would have to be more conservative.

Two had taken cover behind a nearby shuttle, and he focused on those first. He swung back out from cover and aimed at the shuttle, ignoring the oncoming bullets and waiting until one of the soldiers poked their head out. Warren fired two rounds off and one of them hit home; the soldier fell back behind the shuttle and didn't come out again. The other lost his nerve and tried sprinting for another shuttle. Warren sent his next shot through the man's kneecap and another through his neck as he fell.

"How are the doors coming along?" Warren asked conversationally.

"Twenty seconds."

"Oh, swell."

Warren fired off another few rounds, mostly just to scare soldiers back into cover. He saw another soldier behind a crate, which, by luck, was next to a large box of missiles. Warren shifted his fire and hit the closest missile with a few rounds until they exploded, sending flames and shrapnel spewing out over the shuttle bay; the man who had been hiding nearby ran out from cover, streaming fire and screaming. He wasn't going to be a problem.

Sunlight flooded the shuttle bay as the large hangar doors opened at the far side of the room. The shuttle's engines burst into life and Warren struggled to keep himself stood up as the force of jolting off of the ground nearly sent him flying.

"I thought you said you knew how to fly?" he shouted.

"Shut up!"

The shuttle turned, offering only its back to the Cerberus troopers, but Warren couldn't just leave it at that. Keeping a hand on the overhead railing he leaned out of the open door and fired the last few rounds of his clip at the troops below. One went down and another clutched his leg in pain, and that was enough of a goodbye for him.

Sealing the door, Warren threw the pistol down onto a seat and dropped into the co-pilots chair next to Gillian.

"Can you take us out of here?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where we are?"

"Eden Prime."

Warren didn't know where that was, but inquiring would be useless; he didn't know where _anything_ was at the moment. Gillian had turned on the shuttle's virtual windows, and he could see why; they weren't flying across a plain or skies, they were flying through a series of underground tunnels. There was sunlight, off in the distance, but it took a long time to reach there, and even then, the exit was nothing more than a small, easily concealed hole in a rock formation.

_Now_ they were out, on the surface of the planet. Gillian pressed a few buttons, and a display console opened up, showing them the view from the cameras on the rear of the shuttle. A huge ship, most likely a cruiser or a frigate, was dropping shuttles down over a patch of land not too far away from their shuttle. It was flying the Alliance colours and emblem; no doubt that was where the soldiers had been pouring out of.

"I suppose we escaped just in time," he laughed. "Get us somewhere safe, and fast. And don't let that ship detect us."

"Who said you could be the boss?" Gillian asked, and for once, it seemed like she was actually smiling.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

"Then I'm the boss." Warren settled back into his chair as the shuttle flew on.


	3. Chapter 3

Warren emerged from the café, saw Gillian waiting at a table in the shadows and wandered over. He placed the food he had just bought on the table and a few bottles of water, and sat down opposite her, checking he still had the pilfered credit chit in his pocket. Had he left it at the counter, the people inside the café might have checked the name and ID on the chit, which would certainly not by his.

"I know it's not much," he said, indicating the small lunch, "But I didn't want to risk buying anything extravagant. The guy I took the chit from might not have noticed it yet, but someone in the bank might let him know if people keep making large purchases."

"That's fine."

Gillian ate mostly in silence, but that suited Warren just fine. He was giving himself a refresher course in galactic history, using a hastily bought omni-tool with access to the extranet. He had already looked through the news reports from the local stations, and while they did mention the Alliance presence nearby, there was no report or request for information on an escaped shuttle; hopefully they had escaped detection.

Still, there was a lot that he had never heard of before. For instance, the Reaper invasion. Now, he had expected that something like _galactic_ _annihilation _might have stayed in his memory, but no, he could not remember a damn thing about it. Perhaps he hadn't been involved… although, reading this report, he very much doubted anywhere hadn't been involved.

The local extranet sites were full of requests for donations to help the rebuilding of cities and the rehousing of civilians who had been uprooted on the planet. Hell, according to this, Cerberus had even taken over much of the Human colony on Eden Prime, but not one site made any mention of the underground facility he had just escaped from. Perhaps it was a recent construction, then. According to the report, the Reapers, and Cerberus, had been stopped about five years ago. No doubt the organisation could have done a great deal since then.

"Do you want to borrow this?" he asked, realizing that Gillian was watching him. She shook her head. "What's up, then?"

"You really don't remember anything?" she asked, giving him a most curious stare.

"Not a thing. I remember waking up, and there are… flashes, I suppose, of whatever happened before then, but nothing substantial. I don't know how I know how to handle a gun, or how I know about things like shuttles or biotics, but I keep getting this information from… somewhere." Warren sighed, closing his omni-tool. "What about you? Do you remember what happened before you were detained?"

"I'd rather not say."

Well, that was ambiguous, Warren thought. He nodded his acceptance though, and ate his own share of the food. He hadn't realized until they had stumbled upon this place, but he was pretty damn hungry. He devoured what he had bought and washed it down with some water, which really hit the spot, and settled back to scan his surroundings.

He wasn't sure what the colony here was called, and it was quite small, but it had served their needs; Warren had found a suitable mark, swiped his credit chit- another skill he couldn't quite remember having learned- and they had hunted down a shop where they had bought fresh clothes. That was when his stomach had rumbled, and Gillian had tracked down this café.

He was glad for the new clothes, and the fact that they had ditched the shuttle some distance away from the colony; there was a remarkably high military presence here, and Gillian confirmed that they were Alliance soldiers. The cruiser that had attacked the Cerberus base had, a short while ago, flown towards the docks in the colony and had landed. No doubt that was where the soldiers were coming from. They didn't pay any special attention to Gillian or himself. They could easily have been another young couple just hanging out in a street side café. Nothing special.

"So," he began, turning to his companion, "Where exactly do you plan on going from here? Earth?"

"No. I'm going to the next base."

"The next _Cerberus_ base?" Warren asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I don't know if you realize, but they really didn't want you to get out of there. If you attack them, they could imprison you, or kill you, however they wanted!"

"That doesn't matter."

Warren stared at the girl for a moment. There was something in her eyes. Not exactly anger, but… fire. Something was alive within her, and he couldn't tell if it was vengeance or some other personal quest, but he knew that she wasn't going to be convinced.

"Are you after them for revenge or something? Or were you captured trying to bring them down?"

"Both."

"That doesn't help."

"Good."

"You can be difficult if you want, but until I know why you want to bring these guys down, I'm not letting you out of my sight." Warren settled back into his chair to avoid the heat of the glare. "I helped you get out of there. I don't want to see you charge off to die."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but at this very moment in time, you are the only person in the whole damn galaxy who knows who I am and would believe anything I have to say." Warren brought up his omni-tool again. "So, how do you plan on getting to that Cerberus base? Do you even know where it is?"

"Noveria. I was planning on taking the shuttle."

"Oh, a grand idea, taking a shuttle across space. That was a close-range escape shuttle, Gillian; they aren't built for deep-space flight." Warren frowned once he had finished; how had he known that? He kept doing that sort of thing. He flicked through a few extranet sites until he had hit upon the right one. "There are no direct flights to Noveria from here, but there is a ship chartered to the Citadel. It's listed as a travel hub. It leaves in an hour. Does that sound acceptable?"

"How would we afford it?" she asked, folding her arms.

"How indeed," he chuckled, sliding the stolen credit chit out of his pocket. "No spending limit, Gillian. I'm sure we can find some way to afford it."

"We'd best get moving then."

"Oh, so you're alright with me coming along, then?" he asked, as they stood up and gathered the water bottles. "You seemed against it a moment ago."

"Would it make a difference if I asked you not to?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Then I won't."

Warren used the extranet to bring up a local services map of the colony, and led Gillian to the docks, located towards the edge of the colony. He observed a group of police officers nearby talking to a local business clerk, and noticed that they were holding a picture that looked very similar to the man whom Warren had stolen the chit from. He picked up the pace.

"You keep taking charge," Gillian mumbled.

"Well, do you know where you're going?" She shook her head. "Then stop complaining." Warren guided them towards the spaceport, at this point more following the flow of ships and shuttles rather than a map. Warren saw more police officers and military personnel the closer that they got to the spaceport. He regretted not keeping his pilfered pistol, but it was hard to conceal.

"Gillian…" he mumbled, grabbing her hand and pulling her closer to him. "Does anyone in the Alliance know who you are?"

"What are you doing?" she asked, ignoring him, staring at his hand in hers.

"Acting. Now answer the damn question." The Alliance personnel were casting them glances, but most of them were focused on Gillian, and not on Warren. He realized that he had not thought about Gillian being a powerful biotic; perhaps there was some way of detecting them. Did the government not want biotics roaming free? He hadn't thought to research them on the extranet.

"I don't think so." That was all he could get out of her.

"Fine. Don't let go of my hand until we're on a ship, and for god's sake, try to look happy. The way you look, people will think I've kidnapped you."

"You almost did."

Warren led Gillian onto the spaceport, and he was glad he had taken her hand; the place was busy, not just with soldiers and with spaceport security, but with ordinary civilians, flowing to and from large transport vessels that were arranged around and above the spaceport. Some of them were too large to land, and instead hovered in the sky ahead, using shuttles to ferry people between the ground and the ship.

Having no clue where to go, Warren contemplating checking for an information terminal, but he had no idea how to find one, and the crowd wasn't making it very easy. He settled for plan B; asking someone.

"Excuse me," he called, hurrying over to a man who looked to be a member of the spaceport organisation authority. "My friend and I are looking for a ship to the Citadel. I was wondering if you could help me out. I'm not sure which ship is which," he laughed.

"Don't worry, lots of people get confused," the worker said. "You'll want to take the _Tiptree_ there, at the end. Speak to the man by the boarding platform, and he'll arrange for you to buy a ticket for the transport."

"Thanks very much."

Warren and Gillian fought their way through to the ship that the worker had mentioned. The _Tiptree_, a smaller civilian vessel, was guarded by several Alliance soldiers. It made sense to have a small military presence on a transport ship; no doubt pirates were a concern this far out, and considering that Warren had just broken out of a Cerberus facility, maybe they were still a threat.

There was a large queue for the ship, and the man in charge of the boarding was clearly having a bad day; he looked ready to explode. By the time Warren and Gillian had finally made their way to his side, he was looking positively furious, though at what, Warren wasn't quite sure.

"You wanting transport?" he snapped.

"Yes, please. Two to the Citadel."

"Well, we haven't got any room. You'll have to wait. Thanks to the damn Alliance taking up room, we've not got the room." The man waved them away.

"Wait, surely there's something we can do," Warren said, smiling warmly. "Maybe I could pay a little extra?"

"We don't operate like that around here, boy," the man said, fuming. "We haven't got room, and I can't do anything, so you and your girlfriend can just go back and wait for the next transport."

"It's a big ship, how can there not be room?" Warren shouted. "I'll sit on the floor if I need to!"

"Regulations state that-"

"Regulations also said that your passengers weren't allowed to bring any illegal goods on board," a female voice called out, "But you still managed to let three people on board, two of which carried red sand and one carrying a stolen firearm." A woman appeared by the crewman and let a number of Alliance soldiers pass, who were dragging three hand-cuffed civilians with them. Long black hair and an impressive physique, she was tall and had a strong aura about her. She was obviously used to giving commands.

"Commander Williams!" the man yelped, his anger gone and replaced by fear. "I didn't inspect their property myself, ma'am…"

"No. I bet you didn't." This Commander Williams turned to Warren and Gillian and gave them a cursory glance. When her eyes met Warren's, her face seemed to change, her suspicious glare replaced by surprise, but she quickly fought it and waved a hand towards the ship. "As luck would have it, seats just opened up, and they've been paid for. Come aboard."

"Thank you very much," Warren said, giving her a warm smile. "Come along, dear," he said to Gillian, who looked dumbstruck; clearly she had forgotten they were supposed to be acting out the part of a couple. Warren and Gillian were allowed up the boarding ramp by two guards and disappeared behind the closing door, while Williams stayed outside with two more Alliance soldiers.

"Are you going aboard, ma'am?" one asked.

"Hm?" she mumbled, quite distracted. She stared after the young boy, wondering…

"Ma'am?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She waved the soldiers away. "I'll be heading to the Citadel, Sergeant. Report to the Captain and pass him the reports I've made. And, until the Admiral has prepared a formal statement, say nothing about the Cerberus presence here to anyone."

"Understood, ma'am."

"Was that boy suspicious, Commander?" the other soldier asked.

"Not really, but… I'll keep my eye on him."


End file.
